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World Map
The World Map, also known as the Overworld, plays a prominent role in many games of the Final Fantasy series. It is a smaller-scale representation that is used in the game to make travel less time-consuming and easier for the player. On it, the player can move about between various locations including towns, dungeons, and other areas, as well as fight monsters in random battles. Later games, including Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy XII, and Final Fantasy XIII, did away with an explorable World Map and replaced it with groups of large, fully-scaled, interconnected areas. The game offers various modes of transportation to the player. In most games, the player is initially forced to walk to each location. But, more modes of transportation become available as the game progresses and the player is required to overcome geological obstacles. These modes include boats, airships, hovercrafts, chocobos, etc. The Main Theme of the game is usually played whenever the players travels around the World Map. Certain games in the series, especially Final Fantasy IV, have more than one overworld theme, because there is more than one overworld map. Appearances ''Final Fantasy In ''Final Fantasy, the world had a single map made up of three continents. The world's geography included forests, mountains, deserts, and a volcano. The player could use a boat to travel by sea, a canoe to travel by river, and an airship to travel anywhere with a clearing available. Points of interest in this world are the Chaos Shrine, Cornelia, Crescent Lake, and the Citadel of Trials. ''Final Fantasy II Like the original, ''Final Fantasy II only had one map. It is unique in the series in that it is connected all around the world as one giant land mass. Notable locations include Fynn, Altair, Palamecia Castle and Pandaemonium. ''Final Fantasy III ''Final Fantasy III was the first game to have several maps. The party start off on a floating continent, but later find that their "continent" is nothing but a small island levitating above the face of a huge world. This surface world also goes through some changes throughout the game's course. When first discovered, the world has been flooded as a result of the Water crystal being taken over by Xande, leaving only a few patches of land accessible to the player. Later, the waters recede, revealing three large continents. See List of Final Fantasy III Locations Image:FF3 Floating overworld.png|Floating Continent. Image:FF3 Overworld beforekraken.png|Overworld before Kraken is defeated. Image:Ff3 worldmap.png|The overworld after defeating Kraken. Image:Ff3DS worldmap.gif|Overworld - DS version. ''Final Fantasy IV ''Final Fantasy IV has three world maps: the Overworld, the Underworld and the Red Moon. The Moon and Underworld are relatively small for world maps, however. The Overworld is the largest of the three world maps in Final Fantasy IV and the place where the majority of the game takes place. It consists of oceans, mountains, plains, and forests and contains a number of towns, castles, and enter-able areas. The Underworld is the second world map visited in the game and is cave-like in appearance (due to being within the planet). Its terrain consists of lava and caves with a few towns and castles, as well as the ground entrance to the Tower of Babel. The Underworld is unique in that one cannot cross from one side of the map to another by repeatedly going in the same direction. The Moon is the third and final world map in Final Fantasy IV and is made up of a few caves and the crystal palace. The terrain of the Moon is quite plain, consisting of caves and craters. It is the smallest of the game's three world maps. Image:FFIVmap-world.gif|Overworld Map. Image:FFIVmap-underworld.gif|Underworld Map. Image:FFIVmap-moon.gif|Red Moon. File:FFIVDS World Map 1.png|Overworld Map in the DS remake. File:FFIVDS Underworld Map.png|Underworld Map in the DS remake. File:FFIVDS Moon Map.png|Red Moon Map in the DS remake. ''Final Fantasy V ''Final Fantasy V had three world maps: Bartz' homeworld, Galuf's homeworld, and both of these worlds combined. Image:FFVmap-world1.gif|World I. Image:FFVmap-world2.gif|World II. Image:FFVmap-world3.gif|World III. ''Final Fantasy VI ''Final Fantasy VI had two World Maps: The World of Balance and the World of Ruin. The game begins in the World of Balance, and after Kefka Palazzo changes the positions of the Warring Triad, the world changes to the World of Ruin. Traveling options include airship, ferries and chocobos, which can be rented from stables in towns and forests. Image:VI-worldofbalance map.jpg|World of Balance. Image:VI-worldofruin map.jpg|World of Ruin Map. ''Final Fantasy VII ''Final Fantasy VII had just one World Map, though it was the first to be rendered in full 3D. It also had the first World Map with a controllable camera. The world did, however, go through a few changes, including the appearance of Meteor in the sky, and also the addition of a crater after the party defeats Ultimate Weapon. Most of the world is in daylight, but the area around Midgar and Northern Crater are always night, and the area around Cosmo Canyon is always dusk. The player can travel the worldmap by buggy and Tiny Bronco on disk 1, and by airship on disks 2 and 3. Chocobos can be captured and used for transportation even across otherwise unreachable terrain. ''Final Fantasy VIII ''Final Fantasy VIII again had just one World Map, but had 32 locations to be explored. It was the first and only map to date to feature an optional 3D globe in place of the traditional map. While traveled on foot, the player can use the roads on the World Map to avoid random encounters. Other ways to travel the map are by rental car, chocobo, train, Balamb Garden, or by airship. The area around Deling City is always night. During the Lunatic Pandora event, the area near and around Tears' Point is enveloped in an apocalyptic red aura with the Lunatic Pandora itself seen hovering over the point. The artificial sea-haven for artisans, Fisherman's Horizon, is located in center of the map's main ocean, and a causeway rail bridge spanning either direction from the town connecting Galbadia to Esthar, bifurcates the body of water making early transportation with the Balamb Garden difficult. During the Time Compression most of the World Map locations become inaccessible and various "warp points" appear across the world for the player to travel in to and out of Ultimecia Castle, where the titular Sorceress that initiated Time Compression resides. ''Final Fantasy IX :''Main article: Gaia ''Final Fantasy IX has two World Maps. At first, players are only granted a map of the known civilized world: The Mist Continent. After certain conditions are met, players receive an ancient map detailing all of Gaia, which is simply an expansion of the first map. The player can travel the map by chocobo, boat or by airship. Gaia is comprised of four major landmasses and their surrounding islands: The Mist Continent to the southeast, The Outer Continent to the northeast, The Lost Continent in the northwest, and The Forgotten Continent in the southwest. An endless night shrouds the Dark City Treno, while the greatest landmass of the Forgotten Continent is forever locked in twilight (though the vast island archipelago in its southern region remains sunny). The overall lucidity of the skies varies in the presence of Mist. Being a product of the Iifa Tree and its roots, said Mist only permeates the Mist Continent and around the tree itself on the secluded western half of the Outer Continent. During the final events of Disc 4, similar to the endgame structure of Final Fantasy VIII, many locales become inaccessible (likely because of disc capacity concerns); they are sealed off with Iifa Tree's roots, and the world becomes enveloped in Mist (also a likely processing shortcut). The World Map is very similar to the original Final Fantasy's World Map. See List of Final Fantasy IX Locations for more information. ''Final Fantasy X &'' Final Fantasy X-2 Final Fantasy X is unique in its map system. Instead of having a large World Map with towns located around it, all locations are linked through paths. The player can jump quickly from area to area once they access an airship. Keeping with the game's tropical theme, the map shares similarities with aerial satellite maps of the Japanese island chain of Okinawa. ''Final Fantasy XI Vana'diel is the world of ''Final Fantasy XI, and it is unique in that a great portion of it is entirely inaccessible to its playerbase and is only mentioned in passing during the script dialogue of particular quests and missions or on in-game item descriptions. Upon its 2002 beta and release, Vana'diel consisted entirely of two major continents, dubbed the Middle Lands: Quon to the west and Mindartia to the east. Quon houses the Kingdom of San d'Oria and Republic of Bastok, while Mindartia holds in its southernmost region the Federation of Windurst. Spanning the Bastore Sea at the world's center is the politically neutral Grand Duchy of Jeuno, which served as the central hub of the game for a number of years. Across the eastern sea of Mindartia is Aradjiah, a new continent released in the Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion in 2006. Only the western portion of Aradjiah (also called the "Near East") is currently accessible to players, and lays home to the Empire of Aht Urhgan. Prior to this though, in the Chains of Promathia storyline, the character Tenzen is said to hail from the Far East, the eastern portion of Aradjiah where apparently Phoenix once resided. The jobs of Monk, Samurai, and Ninja originally hail from this region. Additionally, both the Shikaree Sisters and Naja Salaheem hail from the Mithran homeland, the continent of Olzhirya somewhere south of Mindartia and Quon. Most of Olzhirya is occupied by the Gha Naboh Matriarchate where even male Mithra exist. The islands of Tsahya and likely Zhwa are also assumed part of Olzhirya, as they appear on item descriptions as islands "far to the south". Rhazowa is the frosted home to the Orcish Empire and the origin of the Gigas - a continent north of even the coldest regions of the Middle Lands. Far to the west of Quon resides Ulbuka, likely origin to the Elvaan race in their home city Aldiaine. Ulbuka is also the origin of most totem-pole furnishings and the Bison Jacket armor set that resembles real-world Native American leather garbs. It is understanding this unviewable, grand structure that one will come to realize that Vana'diel, in some loose respect, alludes to the basic cultural geography and historical development of the real world. Regrettably, this late in the game's lifespan, it is extremely unlikely that the Far East of Aradjiah, Olzhirya, Rhazowa, or Ulbuka will ever become explorable to players. File:Vanadiel map.jpg|Middle Lands of Vana'diel. File:460px-Ahturhganbig.jpg|The nearest portion of Aradjiah. File:Vanadiel Complete World Map.jpg|Artistic rendition of the unreleased but mentioned regions of Vana'diel. ''Final Fantasy XII Ivalice is the name for a region in the world of ''Final Fantasy XII. It has three continents: Valendia, Ordalia and Kerwon. Final Fantasy XII has no traditional overworld, similar to Final Fantasy X, but the areas are much more wide and open. The player can travel through the world on foot, teleport via a Gate Crystal, or use the party's airship. ''Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings The first chapter of ''Revenant Wings takes place in the same Ivalice as Final Fantasy XII. After the acquisition of the Galbana, the Purvama of Lemurés is accessible and plays host to the majority of the game's events. Later in the story, the party may freely travel between Lemurés, Ivalice, and the lofty Keep of Forgotten Time. Unique among Final Fantasy installments, Revenant Wings allows the player to travel by airship very early in the game, and the world map itself requires a very short amount of walking. ''Final Fantasy XIII :''Main article: Gran Pulse :''Main article: Cocoon ''Final Fantasy XIII has no true World Map. The game world can, however, be divided into two distinct sections: the large world of Gran Pulse and Cocoon, which floats above it. Player characters are limited to only certain sections of each world with most of Cocoon being unrevistable. Although Cocoon has the appearance of a small planetoid, it is actually hollow and its inhabitants live inside of the shell. ''Final Fantasy Agito XIII Final Fantasy Tactics The world of ''Final Fantasy Tactics, Ivalice, differs from that of previous games. It is made up of a series of locations represented by glowing dots on a 2-D map which the player can see at all times when not in battle. Ramza can move between these dots, and each space traversed takes up one day. Blue dots signal a peaceful town or city, green dots signal an area where a random battle has a 50% chance of occurring, and red dots signal a location where a storyline mission will be forced upon moving onto the dot. ''Final Fantasy Tactics Advance ''Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is also set in Ivalice, but its geography is different from that of Final Fantasy Tactics. The world map is again a 2-D plane made up of a total of 24 location symbols rather than the worlds of other Final Fantasies. With a few exceptions, a new area can be placed in blank circles on the World Map whenever Marche completes certain missions. Moving between spaces on the map, symbolic or blank, takes one day. ''Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift A 2-D region of Ivalice called Jylland is used for ''Final Fantasy Tactics A2. This Ivalician area spans two continents; Loar in the west and Ordalia in the east. Airships are used to travel between these two continents, from Moorabella in the west to Fluorgis in the east. Jylland is comprised of five territories, in which there are many smaller territories and locations. Tactics A2 differs from Tactics Advance in that all locations are set, and traveling between locations does not necessarily take up one day. ''Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles ''Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles's world is split into nine areas, each one containing dungeons or settlements. The dungeons and settlements are represented by little icons that represent the area. The Tipa Caravan moves across the map by selecting a location; along the way, random events can be witnessed on the path. To enter another area, the caravan must past through the Miasma Stream, which, depending upon the year in the game, can only be passed if the Crystal Chalice element matches the Miasma Stream's element for that year. ''Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates ''Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates's map is made up of one area with towns and dungeons represented by small portraits on a 3D map. The entire map can be viewed freely, but new dungeons only appear as players progress through the game. ''Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King ''Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King's map is used to assign quests for the adventures sent out by King Leo. None of the locations (besides Padarak) are seen, and they are only explored by the adventures. As they explore and defeat the bosses in each dungeon new locations show up on the map. ''Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time In ''Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time, dungeons and towns are represented by icons, much like in the original Crystal Chronicles. Characters are also able to freely move around on the map, much like in the old Final Fantasy games. ''Final Fantasy Adventure Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light Thể_loại:Cần dịch